Photo Walk Texture- 2 uses

Here are 2 uses of a texture that I picked up at the Photo Walk, and my explanation of the pictures….

One of the things I was interested in trying at the Photo Walk was to pick up an interesting texture or two. Textures are high res photos that you overlay onto an existing image and then mask or erase from parts of the picture that you want more clarity on. I had a rough idea of what to do with the texture, but not sure where to go with it…. as I was walking around Durango I saw a nice wall with a basic, sorta sparkly granite texture. I pulled out my camera, stepped close, and took the image. Once home I played with it in photoshop a bit, adding some noise to increase the texture and decreasing the exposure more than I would with a regular photo (I didn’t want to compete with the images in terms of lightness or look). Then I looked for likely candidates. Both of these images are ones that I liked a lot but felt they needed something added.

The maternity picture was one that I loved originally but needed some help and I couldn’t figure out from where. I wanted to try a texture on a person photo, so this seemed like a good one. As you can see, the woman’s face was soft-focus, as I had wanted the photo to focus on her belly. I like the look on her face immensely though. After going through her pictures originally, I regretfully decided that this one just doesn’t work as well. But with the texture to add interest, some background, and a bit more cover on her chest, I think it works better. I also left the edges of the texture rough, so they seem to creep into her hair and other parts of the photo.

The flower exposure was taken on the Photo Walk, and had a bit of camera shake- certainly not a perfect technical image but something that I keep looking back at, even after I thought, “oh, too bad that didn’t come out.” Finally I just felt I needed to play with it as an artistic piece, not as a literal image. I took this picture right after the rain stopped, half-leaning into a wet bush, getting a macro shot of these poppies on the side of the road. No surprise there is a bit of camera shake! Once I got the photo right it still needed a little more interest. That is where the texture came in. I overlaid the texture on the photo and then erased much of the texture over the flower itself… leaving a bit here and there as you can see. Overall I’m pretty happy with my first experience with a texture.

I would love to know what people think- as I’m new at the texture business and trying new things. I’m probably going to purchase Trey Ratcliff’s Texture tutorial off his website, with some textures that he has offered. That seems like a good place to go with all this!

I’ll be adding my texture attempts to my website at www.kelleybard.com, check it out if you like my work so far.

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About Kelley B.

I am a Durango, CO photographer who specializes in portraiture and wedding photography. My business is Kelley Bard Photography. You can find me around town, gardening, or on my website at www.kelleybard.com.
View all posts by Kelley B.

One response to “Photo Walk Texture- 2 uses”

I don’t mean to say that textures are only useful on photos that aren’t technically perfect… that’s a thought I had as I was reading this over. 😀 Textures can make a photo REALLY amazing. I haven’t seen them used much but I was stunned at some of Trey Ratcliff’s work with textures- again, check out his website and work if you haven’t already- http://www.stuckincustoms.com